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Minecraft 1.9 is upon us! Well, a pre-release version, at least, so the main client is updating just yet. It seems like only yesterday that the long-awaited 1.8 hit so this is a pleasant surprise, so what does 1.9 do? It bloody well sticks in NPCs is what it does. According to early reports, they don’t actually do very much yet, but we should congratulate them just for existing. Notch has also been tweeting about craftable snowmen, who will actually come to life and hang around with you! There’s a horrible and possibly true rumour that they melt if you take them to warmer climes as well. It’ll be just like when I saw a live stage version of Raymond Briggs’ story and cried for hours at the end. Confirm if this is true so I’ll know never to bond with them. Go download it now!

@Tams80 They’ve been really slow to update the game that they sold on the basis of beta access. I’m glad they’re finally getting some proper momentum going. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I work in software; that may be why my perspective on the game’s progress differs so radically from yours. Your willingness to dismiss me on the basis of my age is pretty low. I’m not impressed with you at all either, mate.

Other than that, the game is actually LESS complete now than it has been

Yeah. I would argue that it was at its most complete and “polished” about a year ago. Well, except for multiplayer.

Starting with the Nether update, they’ve been adding more and more stuff that feels a bit half-finished, then moving quickly on to the next thing. Biomes have only really been done right starting with 1.8. That doesn’t really bother me, but it does mean they have a much bigger job if they want to make all parts of the game really shine

I desperately wish Mojang would put always-online DRM in Minecraft. After hearing Blizzard’s reasons for including always-on DRM (erm…their customer’s are too stupid to comprehend an SP only character?), I’m sold and think that everything should have one. There’s just so many non-profit-based reasons for everything to have it. I’m currently trying to work out how to give my toaster always-online DRM.

Haven’t played minecraft for months, and the Diablo article on RPS set me DRM-senses tingling after i logged into Minecraft. I just wondered if, after the log-in to play SP, there are any background persistent internet checks

tehre IS annoying always-logged-on drm in Minecraft : sometimes if you don’t connect you get a
“Non licensed copy ! :( (or registered from another location)”
which takes some place on your screen, in the upper right corner.

With the Mojang boys playing with the world generation so much recently, it’s actually putting me off a bit; don’t want to jettison all the work I’ve put into my current world, don’t want to miss out on new features.

Actually beta means feature complete with just bug fixes left to deal with, “Minecraft Beta” is really misleading as it’s really still in alpha stage because they are still adding features (which introduces new bugs).

I can assure you that, for systems that have lesser CPUs but still have a good amount of RAM (e.g. my MacBookPro only has a 2.4GHz C2D but does have 4GB RAM), upping the allocation to a gig or two helps with stuttering and loading-lag. So it’s not a useless tweak.

MacBooks do run Minecraft very poorly. I presume it’s something to do with Mac OS but I’m not sure. My flatmate has a similar specced MacBook to yourself. He recently picked up an AMD netbook with a dual core running at 1ghz and so far it’s been stomping the MacBook in game performance.

It’s not a memory leak, it’s just how Java’s automatic garbage collection works – if there’s available unallocated space it will use that, rather than using-up CPU cycles clearing un-needed data. This means that however much memory you allocate to Minecraft, it’s usage will continually rise until garbage collection is invoked.

If you’re getting “out of memory” crashes on 32-bit Windows it may actually be because you’ve got too much memory allocated to Minecraft. If you’re on a 64-bit OS, make sure you’ve got 64-bit Java installed and the game is actually using it. Java 7 may also help with these kinds of issues.

Having been away from it for a while I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the global 1.8 changes in my own wee pre-existing world (lighting engine, new items/mobs etc) without travelling too far afield to find the new content – and now more to look forward to! I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl.

I love the new health/food system (finally a proper reason to do a bit of farming) and particularly archery. Although (of course) the feathers to make the arrows are a lot harder to find now. Unless…anybody know if you can hatch an egg in a furnace? Will try my own microwave and report back.

The new ruins that you can find in the nether are really cool looking, complete with strange imp like mobs that fire ghast fireballs in rapid fire. Oh you can bat ghast fireballs back at them, I spend a good 15min killing ghasts whilst listening to the zelda OOT battle music (link to fwd4.me).

In over thirty years of gaming, Minecraft is the single most enjoyable thing I’ve ever played, and it keeps getting better. If all development ended now and I never played it again (unlikely) I would have nothing but praise for it.

No kidding. Nothing I’ve ever played has had the longevity and sheer, simple gaming joy of Minecraft. I’m not even much of a multiplayer – my fun comes from exploring new areas by myself and seeing (with each update) the game develop beneath my feet, as it were.

There’s a distinct possibility that once it’s ‘completed’ I’ll lose interest, but it continues to be a hell of a ride, one that (at my advanced age) keeps my faith in gaming alive.

“Update to 1.8.1 is underway (1.9 is still not officially available).
Fix for Lag Spike of Death is updated to 1.8.1.
OptiFine 99.95%, Release candidate 2: Download 1, Download 2
Known problems: all fixed!”